What to expect when overclocking

You’ve selected your hardware, you’ve chosen your overclocking-capable chip, now you need to do some research on your core and how well it’s going to clock. On top of your processor, you’ll notice a string of numbers — this is known as your chip’s batch and indicates which silicon wafer your chip is derived from. A quick Google search often provides forums where other enthusiasts are benchmarking cores from the same wafers, giving you a rough estimate of how yours will perform.

It’s also worth doing some general research. Fortunately for the consumer, you have the advantage of reviews coming out ahead of time, indicating what you can expect in terms of overclocking potential. Getting a good grounding and idea of just how far your chip will go not only gives you suitable targets to aim for, but also a sensation of just how lucky you can be.

MOTHERBOARD SELECTION TIME

Your choice of motherboard is one of the factors that tends to vary the most when it comes to the overclocking experience, either through hardware choices, UEFI BIOS or general stability. Everyone has a particular brand of motherboard they enjoy overclocking on. For us here at APC, it’s ASUS — the clean and crisp BIOS, coupled with a plethora of additional settings, means we have full access to a wide range of overclocking features that are sometimes ignored, locked or often not included with other brands. That’s not to say that you’ll find the highest overclock records here, but generally speaking, for the everyday user, who only has access to one processor, you can usually get some seriously impressive performance out of an ASUS-branded motherboard.

Outside of UEFI BIOS, overclocking profiles and settings, motherboards control how the voltage reaches your processor. The eight-pin EPS power provides juice straight to the processor, which is converted via the voltage regulator modules (VRMs), by using a combination of pulse width modulators (PWMs) and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETS), from the 12V power down to 1.2V VID that the CPU needs to operate.

AUTOMATIC VS. MANUAL

What we’re talking about here are automatic overclocking profiles and features. ASUS has its AI Tuning, MSI its Game Boost technology, ASRock its preset profiles — you name it, if a motherboard manufacturer has a Z170 mobo, it’s likely there’s an accompanying, well trademarked form of automated overclocking.

In theory, these are great; an easy way of gaining a 10–20% increase on your clock speeds. That said, there are always going to be limitations, and these automatic features almost always apply more voltage than is strictly necessary. For instance, our auto ASUS AI Tuning applies a Vcore of 1.34V, allowing us to get an overclock of 4.3GHz. In contrast, we can do the same overclock with a meager 1.31V on the Vcore, reducing overall temperatures by 10°C, while still retaining stability.